The Sultan of Brunei, widely regarded as the world's richest man, marked 25 years on his gilded throne Monday, but he offered his pampered subjects only prosperity rather than a return to democracy. Celebrations marking the Silver Jubilee of Sultan Muda Hassanal Bolkiah produced a rare public gathering of Asia's reticent royal houses, from Malaysia's sultans outfitted in blue and chartreuse silks to the Crown Prince of Thailand in a Saville Row double-breasted suit.

Things are bad all over. Even the world's richest man is having second thoughts about remodeling his Beverly Hills property. Not just any property, of course. It's the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the construction cost would be about $150 million. That's more than most people make in a lifetime, but more or less pocket change for a man worth $31 billion by Fortune magazine's estimate.

A decade ago, when Martin Greenwald started Image Entertainment Inc., a Chatsworth laser disc distributor, "people literally laughed at us," he said. Today, Image's investors--which include America's richest man, John W. Kluge, who owns 39% of Image's stock--aren't laughing, but they are still waiting for Image to turn a profit. Greenwald, an ex-stockbroker and former porno film distributor, said their waiting is now over. Of course, Greenwald has said that before.

To hear Australia's three most prestigious newspapers tell it, nothing less is at stake than the fate of democracy Down Under. The villains? The papers' prospective new owners. So went the hostile reaction last week after Kerry Packer, Australia's richest man, and Conrad Black, the Canadian media mogul, announced a joint bid to buy the John Fairfax Group Ltd., the country's oldest and second-largest newspaper group, for $865 million in equity and debt.

The Duke of Westminster, reputed to be Britain's richest man, has fathered a son and heir to his title. The 8-pound, 10-ounce boy, named Huge Richard Louis, was born Tuesday. He is the new Earl Grosvenor and will someday become the seventh Duke of Westminster and inherit his father's estate, which includes 300 acres in London's expensive Mayfair and Belgravia districts and a 13,000-acre rural estate.

November 18, 1990 | BILL THOMAS, Bill Thomas is co-author of "Lawyers and Thieves" (Simon and Schuster, 1990), a humorous look at the legal profession.

IN SUMMER, the rolling hills outside Charlottesville, Va., take on the deep green hue of new money, a convenient reminder of who owns them. Nature imitates net worth in this part of the country, and historic estates have names that sound like they're expensive brands of bourbon, such as Ash Lawn, Willow Brook and Tall Oaks.

A Japanese railway and real estate developer has earned the ranking of the world's richest businessman for the fourth straight year, according to Forbes' annual list of the world's billionaires released today. And American real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who suffered huge financial setbacks during the year, was dropped from the list.

Martin Greenwald, chairman and chief executive of Image Entertainment Inc., which markets and distributes laser videodiscs, has a small pillow hanging on his office wall in Chatsworth. It reads: "Happiness is positive cash flow." The pillow was given to Greenwald by John Kluge, ranked by Forbes magazine as America's wealthiest individual with a net worth exceeding $5.2 billion.

The richest man in the country, John Kluge, was awarded $46.6 million in a suit against a former friend. Kluge, whose Metromedia empire includes telecommunications, computers and film production, had sued Bill Fugazy on the grounds that Fugazy had overvalued the limo company he sold to Kluge by about $7.5 million. A New York jury awarded Kluge $15.5 million and the judge tripled that amount. "It's an absurd decision," Fugazy said. "It's a personal thing, Kluge and me.